Let it be known

February 6, 2014

It doesn’t take a scientist to understand what will happen if we start taking wild fish out of our rivers. It’s common sense really. The past is all you really need to look at, or the state of Washington at present. The future has its own tale to tell as well, population growth, which accounts for countless strains on watersheds, water, logging, fishing pressure, etc., etc. The fish are going to need all the help we can give them. Taking fish out of the system is unwarranted.

It’s not about subsistence anymore, you’d be killing because you can, not because you have to. I mean, take the money you’d spend on your fishing license, tackle and gas and you can buy a few weeks worth of food. Even though we can’t kill wild fish on the Umpqua, the fishing pressure has not subsided, actually it seems to have increased, this means the gas stations, restaurants and hotels are still getting theirs. There has got to be a bigger reason why we fish for them. While I can’t put the reason into words, we’re all there for the same thing (even the guys that want to whack’em), just can’t describe it. Shouldn’t this be good enough?

Kill. Kill. Kill. And nobody wins.

“For the North Umpqua, where we have the most accurate information on wild winter steelhead abundance, the PVA Model found that the population could withstand a sustained harvest rate close to 50% without increasing its long-term risk of extinction.” – Coastal Multi-Species Conservation and Management Plan